A make-or-break second quarter made Broughton and broke Hillside Tuesday night, the Caps taking control for good en route to a 65-49 win in the 4-A Eastern Regional semifinals at Crown Coliseum.

“The second quarter turned the tide for them,” Hillside coach Crasten Davis said, shaking his head as he recalled a barrage of missed 3-point tries by the Hornets in the period. “We missed (six) 3 pointers, three of them from NBA range, they got the rebounds and killed us in transition. We never recovered.”
Broughton (26-5) crushed the Hornets (22-8) on the boards 43-24 and used 48.1-percent shooting to pull away from Hillside, which shot 32.7 percent from the floor. At the outset, Broughton grabbed a 9-2 lead, but Hillside called timeout, upped its fullcourt defensive pressure and began to turn it around.
“We knew going in they were going to press us,” Broughton coach Jeff Ferrell said. “But after that timeout, we started throwing it all over the place.”
But Broughton never stopped rebounding, turning many of its 13 offensive rebounds into points.
“Their second-chance points hurt us,” Davis said.
Hillside chipped away, taking its first lead, 17-16, at the outset of the second quarter on a short jumper by De’Shon Self (18 points, five assists, four rebounds, three steals). But Broughton, driving and dishing, came right back and took a 33-25 lead at the half.
Hillside senior forward Marius McAllister picked up his second foul with just 1:55 into the game and was forced to sit out the rest of the half. Trevion Thompson made up for McAllister’s absence on the boards, picking up five rebounds.
But McAllister, Hillside’s tallest regular, was missed when it came to guarding 6-6 Chris Brickhouse (13 points) and 6-5 James Hemphill (22) in the paint.
“We missed Marius, but we missed scoring from (center) Malik (Evans) — we just couldn’t get over the hump,” Davis said, referring to Evans’ 0-of-4 shooting performance in the first half.
Hillside opened the third period with a dunk by McAllister and a 15-footer by D’Ontray Johnson in the first minute to cut the lead to 33-29 but didn’t score another point for about six minutes, as Broughton increased its lead to 44-29.
Hillside ended the period with Evans getting his first points on a twisting layup with 1:20 left and Johnson converting a steal into a layup.
Hillside trailed 44-33 entering the fourth quarter, but Broughton essentially put the game away with a 6-0 run to open the period. Hillside closed to within 54-46 with 3:47 left, keyed by a pair of McAllister steals, but could get no closer and ended the Hornets’ season in the state quarterfinals, a level Hillside hadn’t reached in 13 seasons.
“Before the season started, I felt like we could be here and I feel like we could’ve advanced,” Davis said. “We matched up well with (Broughton). We definitely fell short of our goals, and I’m disappointed.”
NOTES — Hillside was delayed getting to Crown Coliseum when its chartered bus broke down at Westover High School, where the Hornets had scheduled a shoot-around. Athletic director Bobby Hill arranged transportation to the arena via a Westover bus. The charter company was to send a replacement bus to pick up the team after the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader.